Our 1st Shopping Trip at the Rock Plaza, Guangzhou, China

Day 3, Wednesday - 1^st Shopping Trip at the Rock Square, Guangzhou,  China 

We had a good dinner last night  with J.  He told us a lot of what he has been doing in China and the goals he has set for himself.  We just hope that he would not overwork himself in pursuing his dreams.

I only brought two pairs of shoes with me to China. One of the straps on my favourite sandal came off and I ended up not having any decent shoes  to wear with my dresses. I went and asked the hotel concierge where I could have my sandals repaired. He was surprised and told me that there were no shoe repair shops anywhere near the hotel. The only thing he could think of was someone moving around with his tools to fix shoes or things for others.  He told us where to go to find this mobile repair person. 

We walked around the neighbourhood but could not find any shops or anyone who would repair shoes.  Wow! Things have really changed!  When we were in China in 2008, we could find repair shops and people with temporary stations to fix things easily on street corners. 

But today the situation is very different. With their country’s economy getting better every year, Chinese people are getting more affluent and their living standards have been improving. 

 It is evident that the lives of the average Chinese are better now than they were before. They are earning more, therefore can afford to spend and buy more.   Consequently, they are buying new shoes instead of repairing old ones.

We walked to the shopping plaza closest to our hotel - Rock Square, and did some shopping there.

There were many restaurants serving a variety of foods from different countries. We had lunch in an Italian restaurant . I had Pellea and S. ordered a drink as he ate the leftover from last night.

After lunch, we shopped in the mall and I bought two dresses from Aeon. The prices were very good!

There were many books in the Children's Section in the Mall.

As an educator, I am always interested in children’s books. We took a look at the children's section. There were quite a lot of  reading material available. 

A parent reading right there to his child

However, I  could not find any picture frames there at all. Construction paper, plastic book covers and were expensive compared to Canada, almost tripled the price back home.

We found a fine pastry corner in the shopping plaza

The weather has been hovering above 30-35 degree C and it was hot and humid.

We were drenched and felt tired after walking around for a little while. 

Coffee break time!

It felt good to find a half decent bakery corner in the shopping plaza!

We sat, enjoyed a coffee break with some fine pastries and the air conditioning!

J. furnished his place with IKEA furniture

After our first shopping trip, we went back to our hotel, refreshed ourselves and waited until  J. finished working. We took a taxi  to his place ( 11 RMB) but it wasn’t easy to find.

We saw J.'s place for the first time and we  were impressed by how much J. has done to his place to make it comfortable. He furnished his place with IKEA furniture, such as sets of tables and chairs, a bed bed and some book shelves, not bad at all.

J. looked so tired after working all day.  He took us to eat in a Muslim restaurant near his condo.  It was 9pm when we sat down and ate.  We were happy that we saw him two days in a row! The food was good!  J. offered to pay for our meal.  What a treat for us!

R.T.

Rock Plaza

Guangzhou

China